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Study area
ASF is located on Kenya’s Indian Ocean Coast (30 20’S, 39055’E). Lying within Kilifi and Malindi Districts, 110 km north of Mombasa, the forest fragment currently covers just over 42 000 ha. The region has two rainy seasons; the long rains from April to June and the short rains from November to December, but some showers and short storms may occur throughout the year. The highest annual rainfall is on its eastern side (1 000-1 100 mm) and the lowest in the North West (600-900 mm). However, as was the case in 2005/2006, the area may experience drought, due to failure of a season of rain (Msabaha Meteorology Office recorded less than 200 mm in some places). Flooding can also occur due to high rainfall either around the forest or in the mainland highlands. In the latter case, the flooding is restricted to the northern areas around Jilore (See Figure 1.1) because of the Sabaki River, which passes by on its way to the Indian Ocean. During 2005/2006, ASF experienced droughts, followed by these two types of flooding. In 2007, weather patterns across the seasons were back to the usual and rainfall ranged between 600 mm and 1 100 mm. In the area around the forest (defined here as the buffer zone), there are patches of forestassociated vegetation and secondary colonizers. Beekeeping is on a small scale (1- 5 hives per person and 10- 40 per group) and typical apiaries have two or all of the following hive types: traditional Log hive, Top Bar hive or Langstroth hive. Apiaries are owned mostly by farmer groups and few by an individual farmer. Honey is usually harvested during the two dry seasons of the year.
Data collection
A total of 366 hives were selected from apiaries situated in the buffer zone, 0-5 km away from the forest, which had established honeybee colonies (Fig 1.1). Using a Garmin Geko 101 Global Positioning System (GPS) Personal Navigator, we marked and recorded each of these for future sampling. Between March 2006 and March 2008 the following information was recorded from each hive that was harvested: type of hive, distance from the forest and total honey yield per harvest (in kg). In addition, we took a 100g sample of honey representing each hive type at each distance category for later analysis in the laboratory. There were three harvesting periods in total: August 2006 to October 2006, March 2007, and August 2007 to March 2008. Actual harvesting dates varied within these periods depending on the history of each hive, such as whether it had experienced absconding or not and, if so, whether successful re-colonisation and colony build-up hadoccurred or not. The length of each harvesting period also differed depending on the previous weather conditions with the longest being after a typical dry season (not drought) followed by an adequately watered rainy period (not flooding) and thus vigorous flowering. The data reported here are mean yields per harvest in kilograms. It is noteworthy that the average number of harvests was the same at every apiary, regardless of the distance from the forest, throughout our study period (Kipepeo honey records, unpublished data) and could not be a confounding factor. The beekeepers operate in groups and each group borrows safety gear in the form of bee suits from the Kipepeo office or from their group leaders. It was therefore easy to track the number of harvests that occurred. This could be because of the limitation of harvesting gear or because the beekeepers are yet to produce honey at its full potential as they are still in the learning process.
Although we initially marked 366 hives for studying honey yield, honey was only harvested from 103 of them in 2006/2007 and from 171 (the former 103 and 68 more) in 2007/2008. The remaining hives had no yield mostly due to absconding effects following the drought and flooding of 2006, as mentioned earlier. The data reported here included 214 Top Bar, 40 Langstroth and 20 Log type hives. Almost half of these hives were in the <1km zone.
For the effects of distance on honey quality, we report data from 46 apiaries, 18 from <1km, 19 between 1-3km and 9 at more than 3km from the forest. At each apiary, a sample was made up of honey collected from hives of one type, i.e. three samples corresponding to the three types of hives. These samples were transported within two weeks for laboratory analyses.At the icipe laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya, biochemical properties of the honey samples were analyzed as follows. Moisture content was determined by refractive methods (AOAC, 1998, method 969.38B), using a specially adjusted refractometer (Bellingham and Stanley Ltd., UK). Sugar composition was revealed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Free acidity was determined photometrically using method 967.21 in AOAC (1998). Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was determined photometrically using harmonization methods of the International Honey Commission (IHC) outlined in Bogdanov (1999). Diastase activity was determined using spectrophotometry, as outlined by the IHC. Finally, proline was also determined spectrophotometrically according to AOAC (1998) using method 979.20.
Chapter 1: General Introduction
Thesis organization
References
Chapter 2: Proximity to a forest leads to higher honey yield: Another reason to conserve
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 3: Temporal availability of floral resources for bee foraging in a protected coastal forest: Arabuko Sokoke Forest, Kenya
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 4: Mangroves of Mida Creek, Kenya: Bee visitation and qualities of mangrove
honey
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
References
Chapter 5: Beekeeping and forest conservation at Arabuko Sokoke Forest: Lessons learnt
References
